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Escape from Paradise, – Now being made into a movie!

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The book’s sensational reviews!

“It took me two and a half evenings to complete your un-put-downable book…it is a unique contribution to the appreciation of a life in Singapore. Thank you for having written it.”C. V. Devan Nair, former President of Singapore.

“Bought the book from Select this weekend and can’t put it down! It’s a great read! And so nostalgic for me—the good old days!” Glen Goei, writer and director of the Miramax film That’s the Way I Like It and who played the title role opposite Anthony Hopkins in the London production of M. Butterfly. Mr. Goei’s latest film isThe Blue Mansion – Click for the trailer!

“It is a remarkable story and so full of intrigue that it reads at times like fiction.” Jonathan Burnham, Editor in Chief & President, Talk Miramax Books.

“This book out-Dallas, Dallas. No one has written so well of the other side of paradise,” Francis T. Seow, former Solicitor General of Singapore

ThunderBall Films is successfully putting together the movie production of Escape from Paradise and has received a new LOI (Letter of Intent) from actress Bai Ling who starred with Richard Gere in the film Red Cross.

This includes a commitment from a CPA firm who does tax credit financing in Ireland, a possible location to film, as part of the package needed for investors – along with the CPA firm’s commitment to apply for and finance the tax credits if ThunderBall does shoot in Ireland and what portion of the budget they would provide.
For inquiries, please contact John Harding at jbharding@gmail.com.

The return of the Arab Caliphate?

The Arab Caliphate 750 A.D.

The term Caliphate refers to the first system of government established in Islam. In theory, it is a constitutional republic where the head of state (the Caliph) and other officials rule the people according to Islamic (Sharia) Law.

In the year 720 A.D., the Caliphate extended from Spain through North Africa and the Middle East and further eastward to what is now Iran and Afghanistan. In today’s world, Somalia, Sudan are ripe candidates for a new Caliphate—while Malaysia and Indonesia are less likely.

Is the idea of a borderless Middle East, known by some as the Caliphate, still viable? Is a new Caliphate more unthinkable than was the collapse of the Soviet Union?

The Arab revolutions have created possibilities in the region that would have been inconceivable only a short time ago.

The political, economic and social suffocation that the people of Tunisia and Egypt have endured, before popular revolutions swept the countries’ dictators from power, were near identical. The political, economic and social ailments suffered in Libya, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, and now Saudi Arabia are of the same vein.

Seemingly stable Saudi Arabia has banned all protests and marches following recent anti-government protests by the Shias who account for 33 percent of the population in the kingdom’s Eastern Province where its oil production facilities are located.

The Shia present a real threat to Saudi Arabia’s oil production as they belong to the same sect as the Shia of Iran and Bahrain.

In fact, the Shia demonstrations come amid media reports of a huge mobilization of Saudi troops in the heavily Shia-populated Eastern Province in order to quell any possible uprising.

Protests were just held in the cities of Hofuf and Qatif, both near Saudi Arabia’s oilfields and its Dhahran oil facility.

The Saudi authorities are increasingly on edge following the anti-government protests sweeping through the Arab world.

Last week, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month vacation and decreed $37bn in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to quell the protests.

Obviously, the causes of political unrest across the Arab nation states are varied and cannot be reduced to generalizations.

However, the pent-up frustrations of the Arab youth, the economic inequalities, and the demands for better representation extend across the entire region.

A single political authority or Caliphate is certainly not about to emerge out of the current revolutions. However what may emerge is a 27-Arab nation political and economic union similar to the European Union. Such a union would be borderless in the sense that its people can live, work, and travel in member countries freely.

Borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the Arab world. The factors of language, religion, of mass communication, may all combine to form a new Arab union.

This union would replace the artificial borders imposed on the Arab world by the colonial powers of the past.

3 comments to The return of the Arab Caliphate?

For the simple reason that despite the overthrow of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt, a stable and strong alternative has not even emerged within each country yet, let alone one that can span across countries.

And the present Arab world is different from countries of the European Union, in practically all aspects – people, culture, economic, social development, etc,etc.

This was not the case in the past,say 1200 years ago in the Middle Ages. Arab civilisation at that time was very well developed, better than the Europeans! They had invented Algebra and the numeric system which is now used in the whole world! So that’s why the Caliphate could exist at that time.

Now the Arab world is only known for its oil wealth! And precisely the only reason why the Western world is feeling jittery over the growing unrest.

Had the unrest happen in some poor African countries, it may not even make it to world news, let alone hogging the headlines!

“Now the Arab world is only known for its oil wealth! And precisely the only reason why the Western world is feeling jittery over the growing unrest”.

Oil is definitely the item that the Western World are most interested in, at least until new energy sources are found, but, to say the West are jittery over the turmoils in the Middle East and Northern Africa, me would say just the opposite. The Western World would be happy to join in the Fray to further sow the seed of ‘Democracy’ which would mean the end of the so-called Arab Caliphate once and forever.

InshAllah.
these revolutions will replace the current secular govts wtih Islamic Caliphate. and then by Allah’s will word will see the march of Mujahideens towards Jersulem and the destruction of Israel.
Allah-O-Akbar.